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For Immediate Release

Nurses to Senator Feinstein: Vote NO on Fast Track and All Trade Deals that Endanger Public Health

WASHINGTON - Nurses will hold emergency rallies Monday, along with numerous organizations, at Senator Dianne Feinstein's offices across the state, insisting that she vote “No” on Fast Track Authority and oppose all trade deals that endanger the environment and public health. The rallies are part of a national day of action to stop Fast Track in other cities across the country.

The rallies are planned in anticipation of the Senate's upcoming debate and vote on Fast Track and the package of trade preferences known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and TAA, starting Tuesday. Last week, the House of Representatives passed Fast Track and agreed to act on other parts of the trade agreement package, including the TAA, by July 30th.

"With the upcoming vote Senator Feinstein has a clear choice to make. She can champion the American people or she can do the bidding of the multinational corporations that are pushing this deal for their own gain," said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. "As California's Senator it is also her responsibility to defend the positive strides California has made in terms of environmental protection and patient safety regulations. This is a time for strong leadership and we expect her to show it."

“We strongly urge all U.S. Senators to reject Fast Track and any trade deal that undermines the public’s health and our democracy when the bill comes to the Senate floor, " said NNU Co-President Deborah Burger. "As advocates, who care about our planet and our patients, nurses are putting Senator Feinstein and all our elected representatives on notice to do the right thing. We are watching very closely.”

Nurses have been mobilizing for months against Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which threatens to give pharmaceutical companies the ability to inflate lifesaving medication costs and, corporations the power to overturn environmental and food safety regulations. If passed, the TPP could jeopardize California's nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and undermine registered nurses' efforts to establish safe-staffing mandates throughout the US.

A number of other issues are at stake in next week's vote, nurses say, including the future of other public health regulations in the US and other signatory nations, uncertainty in TAA assistance to displaced workers, weak provisions on human trafficking, and prohibition on regulations and laws to reverse climate crisis, and address immigration policy. The prohibition on environmental regulations places California, with its relatively strong air quality standards, at a competitive disadvantage to Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries in the partnership that have little to no regulation.

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